The Health Advocacy Project works to ensure that all North Carolinians, especially underserved populations including individuals and families with low incomes, racial and ethnic minorities, and rural communities have meaningful access to high quality, affordable, equitable and comprehensive health care so that children, adults, families have better health outcomes and live productive lives.

Expand and protect access to health services for individuals and families who have low and moderate incomes.

Secure health care policies that prioritize the needs and well-being of North Carolina consumers, especially with respect to the implementation of Affordable Care Act and NC Medicaid Reform.

Provide information to health care consumers, community members, and stakeholders so that they are empowered to become health care advocates.

Serve as a voice for health equity.

Promote the consumer perspective on state and federal health care policy in the press and at public forums.

Join us! The NC Health Access Coalition is a coalition of groups and individuals from across the state working to create a better health-care system. We want you to join the effort.

LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY

Health Care Reform: We are leading the effort to educate state lawmakers about reform and ensure that new state laws governing reform put the needs of consumers first. As part of that effort, we created one of the largest health advocacy coalitions ever assembled in the state, Citizens for Responsible Health Care, in order to inform and mobilize those with a stake in the health reform process. Our aggressive advocacy efforts have been recognized nationally.

You can get the latest news on the process through our e-newsletter, and you can hear the stories of North Carolinians struggling with current health-care system on our YouTube page.

Public Health Programs: Every year, we work with legislators and policymakers to push for adequate funding for health-care programs that serve North Carolina’s children, low-income families, and people who are elderly or have disabilities. We also work to remove barriers that prevent some families from accessing much-needed services.

NATIONAL VIDEO TRAINING PROJECT

As a national leader in the use of short video to enhance nonprofit advocacy efforts, we are traveling the country to work with our fellow state advocacy groups on the use of video. This powerful tool can help nonprofits build relationships with policymakers and funders, expand mainstream media coverage, bring compelling personal stories of the people we work with to a wide audience, and create concrete change. Read about our most recent efforts with the Georgetown Center for Children and Families: Video Advocacy – It’s Easier than it Looks.

Plus, check out our free Video Training Manual for Advocacy Organizations, which pulls together the equipment and basics of short video production and explores the different and surprising objectives advocacy groups can achieve using this powerful tool. And take a look at our Behind the Scenes video. The HAC team shows you how easy it is to shoot and edit a personal story video that advances your goals.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Caregivers and Elderly North Carolinians: We launched the Campaign for Better Care, with our partners Community Catalyst and AARP North Carolina, to educate elderly North Carolinians and their caregivers about their rights, hear their stories about difficulties with the health care system, and engage them in the effort to create a better system. Check our website for upcoming events.

The Health Access Coalition works with our friends at Consumers Union (the organization that publishes Consumer Reports) to address rising health care costs. As consumer advocates we want to ensure people get good value for the money they spend on medical care. That is why we are excited about a new resource offered by Consumers Union called the Health Value Hub.

At the Hub you can check out briefs, explainers, and summaries of research on strategies to contain health care costs while improving quality. You can find these resources at http://www.healthcarevaluehub.org.

To help people access charity care, we push hospitals to publish financial assistance guidelines online. We also work with the news media to reveal some of hospitals’ bad practices, such as suing patients and putting liens on their homes. We continue to fight for more transparency in hospital billing and to encourage hospitals to adopt more realistic charity-care and collections policies that do not bankrupt our state's most vulnerable residents.